We’ve attempted, in these anniversary issues, to review the Gazette’s coverage of the last 40 years in somewhat of a logical sequence. Last month, an historic review of our nature preserves, for example, in order to coincide with Walktober, coverage of our local schools in the September issue, veterans this month, and another important November event – elections, and the “politics” that come along with them.
Of course, on a national scale this entire year, and not just election month, has been consumed with politics. Sometimes it seems as though it’s the only conversation we have. On the local level as well, politics becomes news when it becomes controversial. Rarely are we given the opportunity to publish “good” political news. One exception — “Hampton’s Vote Really Counted” — which congratulated voters for achieving the highest rate of participation in the state of Connecticut for the 2011 municipal election.
In a local election year, we’re pleased to provide space for candidates to introduce themselves to the electorate on the October front page. November’s issues have summarized debates, and always contain information, sample ballots, banners, and boxes encouraging everyone to VOTE. During both months, letters to the editor advocate for local candidates, though this only started in earnest in 2001 and continued for local elections, reaching a crescendo in the year we earned the Democracy Cup, which proves that, at the very least, controversy fuels participation.
Too often, whoever is the subject of the political controversy presents a strong desire to suppress it. This comes in the form of trying to convince us of the futility of publishing the information – what’s the point? — to trying to persuade us that our newspaper’s purpose is not to report the news. I love the people who suggest that we should only publish good news. Goodwin programs, news of the boy scouts. That would be lovely, wouldn’t it? If that was all there was to print. Wouldn’t it be nice if we turned on the news in the evening and they let us know that there wasn’t a shred of bad news anywhere on the planet to report? But I don’t think we’d like it if they said that there was plenty of bad news but they weren’t going to report any of it anymore. That they were following the motto: if you don’t have something nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all.
When it comes to local controversy, we have our rules of thumb. If news of our town appears in a newspaper beyond our town, if it’s news, for example, in the Willimantic Chronicle, then it’s definitely news for us. If it involves State agencies – Freedom of Information, Elections Enforcement, the State Department of Education – it’s news. If it’s of local import, which is usually determined by the amount of citizens expressing concern – at Town meetings, through petitions, or letters to the editor – it’s news. If people bring significant and documented gripes to any government entity, the Board of Education, or Selectmen, or Finance, it’s news. And we have to report on it, even if it results in negativity towards us.
At our Fall Festival Poll, we asked the question – how do you stay informed of national news? The varied results are reported in this issue. What matters is that residents seek information. And a newspaper’s primary responsibility, whether it’s a global publication, or a small town newsletter, is to provide it.
Some residents ask – why aren’t you reporting about this, or that? The members of the Gazette board do not live in a vacuum; we’re all relatively public people. But we’re not everywhere. We can’t know of all subjects of concern to citizens if they don’t bring them to us. Last month an anonymous letter asked us to track down information on a possible ethics violation. The last sentence,” I hope the Gazette will do due diligence” means a lot to us. That people feel that whoever they are, and even if we don’t know who they are, their concerns are important to us. Important enough for us to track down the answers and report them, even if it means it will win us a few more enemies.
Juan Arriola